


feathers

by onceuponaplot



Series: 30 Day Writing Challenge - November 2014 [18]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Daemons, Gen, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-19
Updated: 2014-11-19
Packaged: 2018-02-26 06:00:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2640722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onceuponaplot/pseuds/onceuponaplot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Writing Challenge Day 18/30</p>
<p>Everyone hopes their daemon settles as something impressive at least once. Imagines what it would be like to have a giant wolf at their back, or something as fierce as a tiger keeping pace with them. Even small kids like Steve hope they’ll be worthy of a daemon that promises they’ll do great things one day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	feathers

Everyone hopes their daemon settles as something impressive at least once. Imagines what it would be like to have a giant wolf at their back, or something as fierce as a tiger keeping pace with them. Even small kids like Steve hope they’ll be worthy of a daemon that promises they’ll do great things one day.

So even Steve’s a little jealous when Bucky wakes up one day and Rosalie’s settled. Bucky puffs out his chest all day, keeps one hand nestled in the golden fur between Rosalie’s shoulders as they play. Steve catches himself staring a few times, watching the way muscles shift beneath Rosalie’s skin as she stretches or the gleam of her teeth when she yawns. He never looks for long – she inevitably turns her big, bright eyes on him after a minute or so, and he feels embarrassed when the lioness stares back at him. He busies himself fussing over Ciara instead as she clambers over his head and shoulders. She’s something small today, a tiny mammal that Steve doesn’t know the name for just yet, and he watches in amusement as she leaps onto Rosalie and starts climbing all over her too.

“She’s gorgeous, Buck,” Steve tells him that evening when Bucky pulls him aside, asks nervously what Steve thinks. “She’s… It feels like she was always supposed to be this way, y’know? She seems right for you like this.”

Bucky breaks out into a relieved smile at Steve’s words and Steve can’t bring himself to be jealous after that.

It’s nearly two more years before Ciara’s decided on what she’ll be.

Steve’s only just awake when he feels something small land on his chest: there’s a soft pressure, something sharp pressing lightly into his skin, and Steve blinks his eyes open.

Ciara’s there, a shrike like she’s been more and more often lately, and Steve isn’t sure how but he knows.

“You’re sure?” he murmurs, reaching up a finger to stroke softly down Ciara’s chest. She makes a wordless sound of pleasure and then nods, grasps the tip on Steve’s finger in her beak. He can’t help but smile.

Ciara hops away after a moment to perch on the windowsill, light just starting to peek into the room. Steve sits up in bed and wraps his arms around his knees to watch the light slowly grow brighter and turn the room gold. His daemon flutters back after a few more minutes to settle on his shoulder. Steve brushes his fingers through her feathers again. He smiles when she scoots a little closer to his neck. He can feel the pinprick of her talons when she flexes her feet.

Steve grins, twists his neck to look at Ciara out of the corner of his eye when she grabs at his hair. “What?”

“Steve, I want to show Rosalie and Bucky,” Ciara says. She shuffles around on his shoulder a little more and fluffs her feathers in a way that tickles Steve’s neck. “Can we go now? Please?”

“It’s only six thirty,” Steve says after checking the time. “It’s early. They might not even be up, and his mom won’t appreciate us just showing up.”

But Ciara’s got him fixed with her small, dark eyes, and somehow the daemon manages to convey a pout with just her beak. “But I want to _show_ them!”

Steve only manages to hold out another five minutes before he gives in and starts getting ready for the day, because honestly, he’s just as eager to show his best friend that his daemon’s settled. It won’t be the first time he’s shown up to the Barnes home early in the day, either, and if there’s any day Mrs. Barnes will forgive him for arriving by seven, it’s the day Steve’s daemon has finally settled.

He can’t contain his excitement on the walk over, Ciara dividing her time between perching on Steve’s shoulder and flying a few feet above his head.

Maybe she’s not big and flashy like Rosalie or the other huge, impressive daemons Steve sees on the streets sometimes, but as they walk to Bucky’s Steve can’t imagine Ciara ever being anything other than what she is.


End file.
